Melody [0:00]
Hello and welcome back to the Game Master Certification Organization’s interview excerpt podcast series. Have you wondered about how to improve as a game master? In this episode we will be chatting with Charles the Sinister Storyteller about analysis and improvement. I’m your host Melody Rainelle. To start things off, Charles, I have a warm-up question for you: How would you describe your better self?

Charles [0:28]
Uh, You mean my brother? No, um... better self... someone who has more time in the week to run games, someone who has been running improv-heavy games, you know, five times longer than I have and can do so with little to no anxiety. Um, someone who has a deep understanding of more systems than I do. I don't know, that's a weird question. But I think that's how I would answer it.

Melody [1:00]
Awesome. Next question: How do you know if you did a good job?

Charles [1:04]
I solicit feedback from my players. I do so more often with a new group, and a new game, and a new game system. So, for instance, tonight, I have my first session of a Colonial Marines campaign for the Alien game, and it's for three players that I've played another alien game with; so generally, I know what they want out of an alien game. But we're looking at playing something far longer term than the five or six-session game we played before. So I would say the first handful of sessions, at the end, I'll make some time for the players to be able to give me feedback on what worked and what didn't work. And, assuming that the feedback is... or, you know, that any criticism is constructive, then I use that, but that's kind of how I know how I did a good job because I give them a chance to tell me - I mean I don't use that time to stroke my own ego - it's really just so I know... "Okay, if I were playing an alien game I would want these kind of things..." So I put those kinds of things in there, and they're like: "Oh yeah, we really like A, but B is like, eh, kind of boring or that's like we don't want to focus on that." And then I just adjust. Also, I've been running most of my groups for like two years or more at this point, so if I weren't doing a good job, they wouldn't keep dedicating three hours a week to my games, or more, I have some players who play multiple games.

Melody [2:39]
Great! How are you improving as a game master?

Charles [2:44]
Well, practice is the number one way. Just running games is the best way to get better at running games. Furthermore, that's a tough one... I will say one thing I'm trying to get better at is improvisational storytelling, which works really well in conjunction with more rules-light systems. So like when you're running a Pathfinder game, specifically like one of the adventure paths - the pre-written stories - it's really easy to run those. You basically have to do zero prep, other than having a vague idea of what the story is and knowing... "Okay, my group gets through X number of encounters a night, let me read the next X plus two encounters just in case." And then you're pretty good. But in a rules light system they tend to have fewer pre-written things, which means I'm having to come up with my own stuff. But that also means I need to be... well, like I'm faced with a choice, I either spend a crap ton of time writing stuff. Or, I come up with a couple bullet points and wing it. And what I've decided, specifically since I run seven games a week, is I'm going to invest a lot of energy into the latter. So I have a couple of ideas, and a couple little story beats, and how we get between those is completely dependent on the flow of that session that week. There are times where we hit one of the three story beats I've prepared because they just really dig into that one. There are times where we hit all three, basically exactly how I would have thought we would. And there were times where they only hit on the second one, and they play in such a way that I can never use the first or the third story beat, and I just have to be ready to adapt. I've purchased some books. Specifically, The Lazy DM [Dungeon Master] and Return of the Lazy DM [Dungeon Master], I think they're called, by Sly Flourish, which talks about how to do very little prep, which sounds lazy but really what it's getting at is: Is it efficient to spend eight hours a week, prepping for one, two to three hour game? And I mean I think the obvious answer is: almost certainly not. So it's all about: "What is the least I need to prep that matters?" Like: "What are the only things I need to know going into a game session." So, that is kind of where I'm pushing myself toward just really cementing the important bits, and being able and ready to flow between those freely, as the story dictates.

Melody [5:30]
I would expect a lot of game masters could relate to what you said. Okay! Now that you are all warmed up and on a roll... please describe your better self again.

Charles [5:40]
Again? Alright, uh, my better self would be someone who is more forgiving to players that struggle with the technology side of online games... Well, you know, I let me amend that. My better self will be someone who just has more patience overall. I'd like to think that I am really good with newer players and honestly, I think I am good with new players, but I have found myself at times with a couple players in particular, that they have idiosyncrasies - like one of my players just doesn't talk, hardly at all. Which is fine, but then when it comes to that person's turn, and I asked them like: "Okay, hey, it's your turn." And then there's just like there's no response, and remember we're playing online so I can't see this person - did they get up and walk away from their computer? Like, I- I don't... there's no real way for me to tell. And then I asked, you know: "Are you, are you with us? Alright, it's your turn." You know, I try to phrase it in a couple different ways so that I don't sound quite as irritated, but then, you know, they'll come back on and say: "Yeah, I'm just thinking." Why wouldn't you say that the first time I like, turn it over? That kind of stuff really bothers me. And I wish it didn't, or rather I wish I had more grace in handling those kind of things... I think that will be my "better self". Just a bit more patience at times.

Melody [7:16]
Wonderful. And thanks for humoring us on that last question, Charles. Interestingly enough, the answer wasn’t the same as the first run. We appreciate the opportunity to get to know and learn from you.

To our listeners - our last podcast interview excerpt with Charles the Sinister Storyteller is coming up next. We’ll be addressing a couple of stereotypical misconceptions surrounding table top role playing games, and getting final thoughts from Charles, so stay tuned! Check out the podcast description for details on how you can learn more about Charles the Sinister Storyteller! Follow us to receive notifications when new podcasts are released. For more podcasts and information, check out our website: https://www.gamemastercertification.org/. Like what you’ve heard here? Hit the share button to help us spread the word. Thank you for listening!